Barbie Treats Fans to Scavenger Hunt on Foursquare and Twitter

To promote the new Barbie Video Girl doll, Barbie is hitting the road for what she calls a "cross-country vacay" and a four-day promotion on Foursquare and Twitter.

Barbie says she'll use social media to leave clues for her fans about her whereabouts in several cities during the Barbie Video Girl Scavenger Hunt that will take place from July 20 to July 23.

During this time, Barbie will hit up San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. According to Barbie's Facebook fan page, she will check into "a mix of fun and fashionable venues" in each city. The post promises a "totally doll-icious time."

Mattel says the promotion will consist of live events in each location. In order to participate in the contest, fans 18 and older must follow Barbie on Twitter (@BarbieStyle) and Foursquare (foursquare.com/user/BarbieStyle) between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. local time in each city. They will then receive clues about the location of the events. The first person who arrives at the secret location and shows the "Street Team" - a promotion crew hired by Mattel -- something pink or a mobile phone with a Foursquare check-in at the location or the original Barbie tweet with the clue will be the winner at that particular location.

The Barbie Video doll has a working video camera in her chest (which Mattel says is "hidden inside her necklace"). She has an LCD screen on her back as well as a USB port, making her look not entirely unlike Vicki the Robot on the 1980s television series "Small Wonder." She can kneel so users can shoot different angles. The doll allows users to make and watch movies - even adding music and sound effects at Barbie.com/videogirl. However, editing software is for Windows only.

Barbie appears as "Barbie Roberts" on Foursquare. (Per Wikipedia, her full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts.) She unlocked the Newbie badge at 1:20 pm on Friday and set her location - naturally - as the Barbie Dream House in Malibu, California.

As of Friday, Barbie had 16,420 followers on Twitter, 271 followers on Foursquare and a little over 427,000 fans on Facebook.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

In addition to ClickZ and Search Engine Watch, Lisa's work has appeared in The Huffington Post, The Luxury Spot, LearnVest, MarthaStewart.com, GoodHousekeeping.com, amNewYork, and The Wall Street Journal. She's a graduate of Columbia's School of Journalism.

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